ASHWAUBENON – With the Marathon fans in a fever pitch at the Resch Center, the Raiders players took the court with one last chance to at least extend their battle with Kenosha St. Joseph into overtime.

With 0.5 seconds left, Alysha Stieber inbounded the ball from under the basket and just in front of the Marathon student section. However the high pass failed to connect with a teammate and went out-of-bounds past midcourt.

With that, Marathon’s hope for a championship season fell just short despite a late rally over the last eight minutes as the Lancers held on for a 61-59 win in a WIAA Division 4 girls basketball state semifinal thriller Thursday.

“With less than a second left we were trying to get the ball up near the rim to either (Olivia) Meurette or (Morgan) Rachu,” Marathon coach Jeff Schneider said. “Rachu normally takes (the ball) out for us, but I wanted to give her a chance (at a shot).

“I thought the game was reminiscent of the type of kids that we have,” Schneider said. “I know we came up a little bit short and things looked bleak at times, but these kids just keep battling and making big shots."

Rachu had a game-high 22 points for the Raiders, who trailed for nearly the entire second half and were down 47-39 with nine and half minutes left. Rachu hit two 3-pointers in the final 2:16 of regulation, sandwiched around one by Stieber that tied the score 56-56 with 1:19 left.

After the Lancers scored the next four points, Rachu’s second 3-pointer brought Marathon to within 60-59 with 46 seconds left, and the Lancers’ Lindsey Thomas hit one of her two free throw attempts then to give her team a two-point lead.

"Honestly nothing was going through my head when I shot those," Rachu said of her 3-pointers. "The shot was there so I took it. I was confident with it. I knew the team trusted me to take it, so I took it."

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The Raiders fell to Kenosha St. Joseph 61-59 in a WIAA Division 4 girls basketball state semifinal Thursday at the Resch Center.
Tim Johnson/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Marathon, which reached the state semifinals for the second straight season, had four chances at the tying basket in the final 23 seconds. The final one came after the Lancers' Niara Collins was called for traveling after hitting the floor pulling down a rebound to give Marathon one last chance.

Kenosha St. Joseph's Sidney Cooks, a 6-foot-4 junior had 21 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks to lead the Lancers, who were making their first state appearance. Cooks, one of the top recruits in the country for the Class of 2017, demonstrated her playmaking skills in battling in the post, shooting from the perimeter or distributing the ball, all despite battling foul trouble throughout the game.

"It was difficult to contain (Cooks), but we just kept battling and battling," Schneider said.

Brooke Balz’s layup with eight seconds left gave Marathon a 30-28 lead at the end of a first half in which the Raiders forced 11 turnovers and got Cooks into foul trouble with their willingness to attack the basket.

"Attacking was a big part of (the gameplan). We wanted to get No. 10 (Cooks) in foul trouble," Rachu said. "It was hard to finish against her. She is so much taller than us. We didn't get that many fouls drawn at first, but once we started getting them, we became more confident with it."

Cooks was whistled for three first-half fouls and then picked up her fourth with 10:35 to play and went to the bench with Kenosha St. Joseph leading 45-37. The Raiders were only able to whittle the Lancers' lead down to five points before she returned to the game with six and a half minutes left.

The Raiders, behind a boisterous red-clad fan base, came out aggressive from the start.

Julia Anderson drove down the court for a layup off the opening tip to give Marathon the lead just five seconds in, but the the Lancers would score nine of the next 11 points. Marathon wouldn’t lead again until Stieber’s jumper would put the Raiders up 17-16 with just under nine minutes left in the half.

Marathon had a five-point cushion with roughly five and half minutes left before the break, but the Lancers rallied back to tie the game 28-28 with 16 seconds left in the half.

Marathon forced 22 turnovers in the game, half of which were steals.

"We weren't playing patient basketball," Lancers coach Lynell Collins said. "One thing about us this year is that teams have had a tough time stopping us once we get the ball past midcourt. We wanted to makee sure we were patient (with the ball). In the first half we weren't."

The Raiders had an uncharacteristic performance from the foul line, missing 10 of their 18 free throw attempts.

"I felt that we had been tremendous from the foul line all season, shooting almost 70 percent," Schneider said. "It's a different atmosphere and you can make excuses, but there are no excuses for it (in the end). But it doesn't take away anything from the heart that these kids played with."